Fire and Ice
by dyingimmortal
Summary: She was fire, hot and blazing and angry. He was ice, cold and smooth and unforgiving. They would never work out… too bad fate had other plans. Leah/Felix. Discontinued.
1. uno

_Hey. New story. Leah/you-know-who-already-'cause-of-that-characters-thing-above (and the summary~ the only reason I decided to put it there, 'cause of the characters thing. Actually, it was supposed to be revealed who Leah imprinted on in this chapter, but… -shrug- Too lazy to hide it again, like with LNAFT :P). Yeah. So, if you don't want to watch me trying to make an impossible pairing seem almost probable, then don't read this. I got the idea for this about a month ago; before LNAFT (Life's Not a Fairy Tale, the Embry/Lauren story), even. I had a hard time deciding between Leah/Felix and Leah/Demetri, but I decided on Felix in the end because it seemed like they would have more… chemistry, you could say.  
_

_If you're interested in the idea of Leah/Felix, check out "Stars Are Fire" by __**Hope Shalott**__; it's the only other Leah/Felix I've seen around on ffnet, and it's just a short oneshot/drabble, but it's really good. ^_^; … um, yeah. /promotion_

_This is part of the Imprint series by me and -xAndromedaBlackx-. Yup. And it's rated T for language and sexual insinuations. And stuff. Yeah. There will be no M-rated scenes. The sexual kind, anyway. I__'d suck at writing that.  
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Leah had never played baseball before.

When she was a little girl, around six or eight or so, she loved to play "soccer" (which basically consisted of kicking a ball around the backyard). When she was ten, she found out she wasn't half-bad at serving a volleyball over a net. At the age of thirteen, she discovered an aptitude for dribbling a basketball, and when sixteen, she realized she could handle a tennis racket quite nicely.

However, baseball had never been one of the sports that Leah had tried. Baseball was just too… clichédly American or something. When Leah thought "baseball," she thought of major league players in striped uniforms cracking bats against home plate. She thought of umpires and people in those weird helmets and the _thwack_ of small white balls stitched with red hitting brown leather gloves hard. She thought of blue New York Yankees baseball caps.

When Leah thought "baseball," she did _not_ think of pale, unnaturally beautiful people with golden eyes, standing huge distances apart, complete with a creepy soundtrack of thunder rumbling in the sky above.

But that was what her eyes were telling her right now, and apparently, the Cullens were playing baseball.

She was in her wolf form, lying flat on the ground at the far end of the open field where the game was going on. She didn't exactly want to be there, but Jacob and Seth were, and she didn't really have anywhere else to be. It was either watch the bloodsuckers play baseball, shop with Emily for baby things (she was pregnant, something Leah didn't want to dwell on), or stay home and watch her mother and Charlie Swan, _Bella Cullen's father, _be all lovey-dovey. (They'd recently gotten married last year, and Charlie had moved to the rez; Sue wasn't allowed to leave due to her status as an Elder.) Leah had chosen to watch the bloodsuckers play baseball; at least she wasn't going to be reminded of Sam that way, or be reminded of the fact that her _mother_ had more luck in the romance department than she did.

Her life sucked.

Leah was seriously beginning to regret her decision, though. Bloodsuckers were bloodsuckers, but they were still sentient beings who had… relationships. Mates. Loves. And Leah did _not_ to think about such things, but people like the psychic leech and her emotion-screwing husband/boyfriend/whatever were making it hard for her, if the _looks_ they shot each other every so often were anything to go by.

Not to mention Jacob and his devil spawn imprint; the little girl—who was almost three but looked about eight or nine—had been deemed too young to play baseball seriously, and _she_ certainly didn't seem to mind. She was sprawled across Jacob's back, hugging his shoulders, her face in his neck. He certainly didn't seem to mind, either.

It was just a reminder of what Leah would never have.

Seth was closer to the bloodsuckers than she was; in fact, he was only a few feet away from where some of the leeches clustered, by the "home plate" they'd designated.

_Getting a close-up view of the game, Sethy? _Leah mocked.

_Don't call me Sethy, _was his prompt, cheerful response. _And heck yes._

_Nobody says 'heck yes,' _Leah snorted. _Everybody says 'hell yeah.' Except you, apparently. _

_Except me, _Seth agreed.

A picture flashed through Leah's mind—_ugh_. It was the devil spawn, reading a book. _Jacob, I don't need to s__ee that shit. I don't care, okay?_

_It's not shit,_ Jacob, the oh-so-fearsome alpha, protested from his spot on the ground some yards away from the bloodsuckers at the home plate (one of them, the blonde female, was going up to bat). _And Nessie's showing it to me._

_Well, tell her for me that guys don't dig chicks who read, _Leah snapped.

_Ew, Leah, Nessie's not even _three_ yet. I'm not going to… I dunno, come onto her or something!_

_I wouldn't be surprised if you did, _Seth said. _Quil's already dreaming about buying a ring from Claire._

This statement was met with silence for a moment, and then… _Ew_, Jacob said. _I really didn't need to know that, Seth._

_Not like _that_! _Seth corrected. _Just, y'know—_

CRACK. Leah started in surprise as the loud sound reverberated throughout the field, ringing in her eardrums for a moment before fading away. She turned her face towards the baseball field and saw the blonde female bloodsucker blurring through the bases. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled.

_That surprises me every time, too,_ Seth said; he sounded as if he were trying to be reassuring. _But isn't that so _cool_?!_

Another picture flashed through the pack mind; this one was of the devil spawn and her mind-rapist daddy playing the piano. _Your enthusiasm knows no bounds, _Leah intoned at her little brother, trying to hide her annoyance at the constant stream of TV commercials playing in her mind. (She thought of the "pictures" as TV commercials; they advertised _Renesmee_ and were every bit as annoying.)

_Hey, don't call Nessie a devil spawn,_ Jacob snapped. _And she is _not_ annoying. _

_You just keep telling yourself that, Jacob Black, if it lets you sleep at night._

_Yeah, thanks, I will, 'cause what helps me sleep at night is the _truth_._

_Real mature, Jake, real mature._

_Well, if you weren't such a—_

Seth's mental voice interrupted their bickering, and a likely insult from Jacob. _Hey, guys,_ he said, sharply, _something's wrong._

_Huh? _

_With the Cullens, I mean. Look._

Leah swiveled her head around to look at the aforementioned leeches; her brother was right, something _was_ wrong. The baseball game had been forgotten; all the bloodsuckers were crowded around home plate now. The psychic bore a worried, frustrated, and slightly horrified expression, as did the mind-rapist. The other leeches' faces were identical masks of confusion. It would have been comedic, if it weren't for the fact that Leah knew, if it shocked the Cullens (or at least the psychic and the mind-rapist), then something was seriously wrong.

A small, slim figure went bounding up towards them from close by. Renesmee. The large, rusty brown wolf, Jacob, was quick to follow, loping behind, tongue lolling.

Through Jacob's (and Seth's, who was also nearby) ears, Leah caught the Cullens' conversation perfectly.

"I don't know why I didn't see this before!" Alice whispered, still looking horrified/frustrated/worried. And slightly angry. Probably with herself, if her words were anything to go by. "They couldn't have just been dropping by, could they have? But then… did they _just_ make the decision? I don't understand… and the vision cuts off; they're there and then—"

"It must be the wolves," Edward suddenly said, realization lighting up his face like Christmas tree lights. And he sparkled in the sunlight, too. _Ha,_ Leah thought.

"So they're involved in this?" Alice mused, a rhetorical question.

"What is this about?" Dr. McFang asked, the very epitome of fatherly concern.

"I just don't know why I didn't see this before," Alice repeated. Frustration was taking over the other expressions on her pale, perfect face. "And Jazz, I'm okay. You don't have to try to calm me down."

The blonde leech, the male one, looked slightly sheepish.

"What's this about?" Bella Cullen reiterated Carlisle's words. "Edward?" He stared straight ahead, seemingly still too focused on his adoptive sister's vision in her mind. "Come here, Renesmee," Bella said, holding out her arms, and the devil spawn ran into them.

Jacob whined low in his throat.

_Guess having eternity makes it easy to waste time, _Leah groused. _Why don't they just spit it out already?_

Jacob whined again, pawing at the mind-rapist's pants leg a little. _Ew_, Leah thought. He ignored her.

Edward's eyes flashed, then focused again. He turned to the rest of his family, and told them, voice bleak, "The Volturi are coming, to check on Renesmee."

Once again, Leah thought it would have been funny how all the vampires' faces looked exactly the same,—only this time the expression was horror, not confusion—except it was too serious to be funny.

"Who's coming?" the big one—Emmett—demanded, his expression suddenly turning to a milder one, a sort of glee. It was actually quite frightening. "I bet we could take them on. It'll be easy."

"No, Emmett," Dr. Fang spoke up, sharply. "We will not attack them, if they are only here to check on Renesmee."

"Who's coming?" the emotion-screwing leech—Jasper—repeated his brother's words. His eyes seemed to grow darker as he spoke, a rather unholy light entering them. Leah saw this through her pack brothers' closer eyes, and shivered slightly. That particular parasite freaked her out, even though she would never admit it. It was probably just his scars—they screamed danger, even more so than a regular bloodsucker.

"Part of the guard," Alice said, answering the question her mate had posed. Her eyes were screwed shut tight in concentration. "Corin, Chelsea, Felix… Demetri, and Jane."

The blonde Barbie hissed in distaste.

"Jane's used to heading these operations, even if her powers will be rendered useless by Bella here," Edward said, probably answering an unspoken question, and then he stared at his wife in such a nauseatingly lovesick way, it made Leah want to hurl. All over his shiny designer shoes, preferably.

His golden eyes flashed past his wife in her direction, and she snorted. _I don't care what you think, bloodsucker,_ she snarled at him, defiantly. He looked away, seemingly amused.

"When are they coming?" the mama leech asked, speaking up for the first time since they'd all convened by the home plate, baseball game forgotten. Edward's face sobered, and it was Alice who answered.

"Twenty minutes," she said.

The Barbie wasn't the only one to hiss this time. "Twenty minutes!" Bella echoed, in disbelief. "Just _twenty minutes_?"

_What are you, deaf? _Leah sneered, even though the person she intended the thought for would never hear it. Her husband did, though, and he looked annoyed again.

"Yes," Alice said, miserably. "I'm so sorry, Carlisle, Esme, everyone," she added, speaking louder, and her tinkly voice carried across the open field and reached Leah's ears. "I don't know why I didn't see this beforehand."

"It's alright, Alice; it isn't your fault," Dr. Fang said gently, placing a hand on one fragile shoulder. "We must prepare now."

_The Volturi,_ Leah thought, frowning, or performing the wolf equivalent of it. _That's the Nazi leeches, right? From Italy?_

_Yeah, _Jacob bit out. _The ones who wanted Nessie dead before. Edward, should we stick around?_

"I'm not sure it's a wise idea to stick around, Jacob," the mind-rapist said, reiterating the original question for the others' benefit. "But Alice saw—"

"The vision cut off," the aforementioned psychic murmured. "And it wasn't because of Nessie"—Bella Cullen grimaced at the still-hated nickname—"because I saw a flash of her in the vision, before it cut off. It must be the wolves…"

"Where are we meeting them? Here?" Rosalie demanded, voice terse.

"Yes. Here."

"And it's inevitable?"

"Of course."

The little vampire "meeting" adjourned, but the mood was too grim to continue the baseball game. The vampires cleaned up silently, gathering gloves, balls, and bats, removing markers from the ground, the ones that indicated where each plate of the baseball diamond was. Leah's thoughts swirled.

_Maybe the meeting with the Nazi leeches is inevitable, but it's _not _inevitable that we have to be there, _she insisted. _It's none of our business, this whole thing. If we just left now, the psychic's visions would clear, and we'd be _helping_. Aren't these vision things subjective or something? We don't _have_ to stick around._

_Nessie's my imprint, Leah,_ Jacob said shortly. _Leave if you want, but I'm staying._

_Me too!_ Seth chimed in.

Well, she couldn't very well leave after _that_.

* * *

_Why were the Cullens playing baseball in the beginning, you ask? Isn't that totally random and unimportant to the plot? The answer is because, in the books, I remember reading about them doing just that—playing baseball, I mean—only once, that time in Twilight when the nomads came. Maybe they did play baseball some more times after that once, but I don't remember reading about them. Clearly, it was just 1. entertainment value (picturing pale, perfect people blurring around or whatever, the American pastime—go team, whoo…) and 2. a way to get Bella out in the open for James to come and be obsessed with her (because really, who important in the book isn't?!) and stuff. I decided to expand on that; I hate it when something new is introduced just for a sole plot purpose and then is forgotten. Can't have SMeyer embarrassing herself (with that sort of stuff)—oh wait, she already did: she created Edward and Bella. :)_

… _anyways… I shall shut up about the loveleeches. Reviews are extremely appreciated. I'll be editing this chapter later; I don't like it much right now, but it's screaming for me to post it. So…_

_Review, please?_


	2. due

_C'est un (une?) update! Wow, people actually like this story. I wanted to update yesterday, but I had a math team meet and lots of homework due on the last day of school before vacation, you understand. So yeah.  
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_And the chapter titles are numbers in Italian. 'Cause the Volturi are from ITALY. (Yes, I'm lame.) Italian according to Babelfish (Yahoo!), anyway. I don't take/speak Italian. (French/Korean/Russian/Chinese/Latin FTW.)_

**_Larkaa!:_**_ Aw, thanks. That's always good to know. xD Thanks for reviewing!_

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The Volturi guard arrived in promptly twenty minutes since their visit had first been seen.

Edward heard them coming first… or rather, he heard their thoughts. Just a moment before, he was talking quietly to Bella and Alice. Then his head jerked up suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and his body stiffened, tense.

"They're coming," he breathed.

Within seconds, Jacob and Renesmee were at his side, the latter still clinging to the former's back. Seth dug his heels into the ground in anticipation. Leah thought he was crazy.

_Oh, c'mon, _Seth said. _They're _interesting, _aren't they? And they're only checking on Nessie; they won't hurt her._

Leah chose not to dignify that with an answer.

Edward did, though.

"That's what's assumed," he said, tightly, "but you can never be sure with the Volturi. They have to keep up with their image as the guardians of the vampire world, but truthfully, they only care for their own power. If Renesmee is a threat to that power—"

_But they promised to leave her alone last time, _Seth pointed out.

"You can never be sure," Edward repeated.

Seth seemed dismayed at this revelation.

_Wow, kid,_ Leah snorted. _Way to go. Be disappointed that the bloodsuckers are evil. Big surprise. If _that's_ your common perception of leeches, you're going to—_

_Oh, shut up, Leah—_

_Both of you shut up, _Jacob said tersely. _I can hear them now._

Leah strained her wolf ears from her position still on the ground—a bit closer to the Cullens now, but not by much—and listened, hard. Were those…? Yes. Running feet, and the light swish of clothing. And… the _smell_.

It was very faint, from far away, but Leah could already immediately tell the scent was different from that of the "vegetarian" vampires'. It was a bit more… wild, primal. Ferocious. Untamed. A bit sweeter, as well. She wasn't sure which scent she preferred—the Cullens smelled like choking, musty, centuries-old rotten perfume, and this new smell was like an overload of sweet candy gone bad. Both were extremely similar, yet extremely different at the same time.

The scent grew stronger as the footsteps grew louder. And then they appeared.

To a human, it would have looked as if they'd glided into the clearing, gray cloaks trailing after them wistfully in the wind created by their high speed of traveling. To Leah, they just seemed to slow down immensely from the speed at which they'd been running before, and then they approached.

Not all the cloaks were gray—the one in the center, shortest by at least two feet—was almost black. The other four figures lurked behind that one presence, watching, waiting.

Leah quickly assessed them all. The little one moved gracefully over the ground, as if she were made of air. Another figure strode calmly, leisurely, another took fast, small, almost dainty steps, yet another appeared to be taking a casual stroll, but Leah could see the predatory crouch behind it, and the last took long, unaffected strides.

The Cullens, Jacob, and Seth, huddled in one large group by one end of the large field, seemed to stiffen with the arrival. Leah would never admit it, but she suddenly wished she'd convened with the others; she was closer, but not _in_ their protective group. She felt exposed, out in the open.

"Jane," the good leech doctor greeted the newcomers. Or rather, he just greeted the little girl in the front.

Her hood was down; she smiled beatifically, the action lighting up her pale face. Leah shivered. That smile, that face… it was _unnatural. _Everything about bloodsuckers was unnatural. It just wasn't _right_.

"Carlisle. It's good to see you all again," the little girl—Jane, Leah thought—chirped, her voice tinkly and just as lovely as her face. "You've been expecting us."

"Only for twenty minutes," Edward spoke up, dryly. "We received short-term notice."

Jane's burgundy eyes flashed to his face for a moment, then the psychic's, before returning to Carlisle's. She seemed satisfied. "I see," she said, her tone pleasant. "Then you know what we're here for, I presume?"

"You're here to check on me," a new voice spoke up.

Twelve pairs of eyes—visible to Leah, anyway; the other bloodsuckers were probably looking from beneath their hoods as well—swung to the speaker. Renesmee's cheeks turned a bit pink.

_Nessie_… a faint whine escaped from Jacob's teeth. _What are you _doing_?!_

_Talking, _Leah said.

_That wasn't very helpful, Leah, _Jacob snapped. _You know what I mean!_

_What, she shouldn't draw attention to herself?_

_Yes, that!_

One of the hooded figures turned slightly in Jacob's direction, then in Renesmee's. Leah thought she heard a slight hiss.

"Yes, little one," Jane said, and Leah thought that was funny, considering Jane's height—or lack thereof. "We're here to make sure there are no… complications in your growth."

Bella bared her teeth in distaste.

"There haven't been any," Renesmee said, the pink fading from her cheeks. Her voice turned clearer, confident. "My growth has been slowing, just like Nahuel said it would. At this rate, I'll be fully mature, like him, by the time I'm seven years old."

"Nahuel," Jane murmured. "The half-breed from South America."

One of the figures behind her spoke up. "We took care of his father a little over two years ago."

"Joham," another said.

"And how is Nahuel doing?" Jane questioned, ignoring the voices behind her. "Have you heard from him lately?"

"He came to visit three months ago," Edward said, his eyes darting to his daughter. The warning in them was clear: _Shut the fuck up and let me do the talking. _At least, that was how Leah interpreted it. "He, his aunt, and his sisters are doing well."

"That's good to know," Jane said, her apathetic tone completely contradictory to her words. "And how are the Cullens doing in Forks?"

"Very well, thank you for asking," Carlisle said.

It was like a chess game, Leah thought. Or something. (She didn't know much about chess, really.) Everyone was hiding their real meanings and intentions beneath false facades.

"And how long have you been in Forks, again?" Jane asked.

"Since 2003, as I'm sure you very well know," Edward said.

"It must have slipped my mind," Jane said, an offhand comment.

That was a lie. Vampires didn't forget anything.

"So you've been here almost nine years," she continued. "Aren't the humans getting suspicious?" Her tone turned sharp.

"We're moving soon," Edward told her.

Leah felt Jacob shudder slightly at this, through their mind-link. That was a touchy subject for him. If the Cullens moved, he'd have to, too, to stay with his imprint… but he had a pack—_family_—at home.

Leah didn't like to think about that, either. She'd never admit as much out loud, but over the past few years since she'd joined Jacob's pack, she'd grown to like him—maybe even the _other_ L word… _maybe_; though she didn't want to even _think_ it—like a little brother. (A mature little brother.) And even though she stayed as far away as possible from cheesy thoughts like the following, she'd come to consider him—and his pack—family. Maybe even Quil (despite his obsession with Claire and her Barbies) and the B-tard, as she'd nicknamed Embry.

But she'd always like Jacob more than Quil or Embry. And she didn't want him to _leave_. He was her alpha, and if she left, it probably meant she'd have to be the alpha, since she was currently the beta. But Leah didn't want to be the alpha. She wanted to stay the beta. And she sure as hell did not want to go back to Sa—_his_—pack.

So Jacob's leaving was a touchy subject indeed.

"Ah, I see," Jane said, tone bored once more.

There was a short silence, only permeated by the distant thunder in the sky. Then, suddenly, Edward hissed.

Leah jerked her head up to stare at him. She'd heard that not only was he a mind-rapist, he was the best at controlling himself, besides the doctor bloodsucker. Or something like that. So if he was angry now—

"That's not all you're here for, though," he almost spat at Jane, voice bleak and dark.

"I've no inclination of what you mean," Jane said lightly, tilting her head back. A wind blew past, ruffling her short dark hair.

"Don't you?"

"Of course not." She gave a light little laugh, a strange mixture of tinkling glass bells and hummingbirds' wings. "You'll have to be more specific."

"You know perfectly well what I'm speaking of," Edward snarled.

Leah tensed. Something was up. The mind-rapist had been right; the Nazi leeches had an ulterior motive. She didn't like it.

_They're not going to attack us,_ Jacob said reasonably. _They're outnumbered by a lot, and we have Bella's shield._

_Oh, you sure about that? _Leah snapped. _What if they have backup somewhere around here?_

_Edward would hear their thoughts, then, _Jacob pointed out. _Hey Edward, any other thoughts in the vicinity?_

"No, Jacob," Edward said.

"Ah, Jacob," Jane uttered, and Jacob tensed as well, which was understandable. Leah would do a lot more than tense if she heard her name being spoken by any leech other than one of the Cullens.

"The alpha werewolf—excuse me, shape-shifter," Jane mused. "One of them. And he has… hm, Jacob and… his Renesmee."

Bella made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a snarl.

Jane ignored her. "That is Jacob, correct?" she asked, gesturing towards the rusty brown wolf as if he were just an animal, and incapable of speaking for himself. (Well, he wasn't, Leah thought, because he was in his wolf form, but that was completely beside the point.) He growled low in his throat.

"Yes," Edward said tightly.

"Interesting, very interesting, the company you keep," Jane remarked blandly. "And who are the other wolves?"

"They're other members of Jacob's pack," Renesmee explained.

The look on the mind-rapist's face practically screamed, "Re_nes_mee!" Leah would have found it funny, but it wasn't, not at a time like this.

"That one smells different from the others," one of the figures standing behind Jane spoke up suddenly, jerking his head in a different direction. It took Leah a moment to realize the leech guard was talking about _her_.

_I do?_

_You do? _Jacob echoed.

"Yes, Felix, just a little bit, the difference between male and female," Edward agreed. "It's almost unnoticeable, though, unless you sniff very hard."

_Sniff. Ha, he said sniff, _Leah thought. _And what has _he_ been sniffing?_

_Mature, sis, _Seth said. _Real mature._

_I thought so._

"I can smell her clearly from here, though," the leech who'd made the comment about Leah smelling different remarked.

"Can you?" Edward said mildly, looking faintly surprised. "It's a very subtle difference in scent."

"Not much of a difference between male and female, then?" the leech commented. "So she's not exactly a bitch?"

Snarls ripped through the clearing, and it took Leah a few seconds to realize that they were coming from _her_. She really couldn't help it, though; the whole "bitch" thing was still a touchy subject (not unlike the prospect of Jacob moving). It was one thing for her old pack members to call her a bitch—Paul, Jared, etc—and even for Quil or Embry (especially Embry; he did so every time she called him "the B-tard") to do so, but a _random Nazi leech_ she _didn't know_?

That was just crossing the line.

_Leah, calm down! _Jacob sounded panicked.

"Felix…" Jane cautioned.

"Did I hit a nerve?" the leech—Felix, apparently—asked. Leah wasn't sure, but she thought his tone was amused, and almost sort of gleeful.

_Fucking asshole, _Leah growled. _I'm going to tear his fucking throat out._

"Leah, no!" Edward exclaimed. As he spoke, another wind blew through the clearing, brushing this Felix's (as well as two other Nazi leech guards') hood back.

He—Felix—had black, close-cropped hair, and an olive complexion underneath his chalky pallor. The two skin tones clashed in a strange way. But Leah didn't _care_ what he looked like. She just wanted to throw herself at him and rip his limbs off.

"No, Leah—" Edward began again, but even as he did so, Leah stared the rude Nazi leech guard (Felix) straight in his dark burgundy eyes, and something strange happened.

The world shifted.

There was no other way to describe it, in her opinion. The world just _shifted. _Only a moment ago, this blo—no, _vampire_—was just another rude leech, a distraction in the deadly chess (or baseball) game they were all playing in this clearing; and then, all of a sudden, he was the brightest, most beautiful thing in Leah's world. He suddenly the center of her universe. _Her_ universe. She was connected to him, now, and that was as unquestionable as the fact that the earth revolved around the sun.

She was the earth now, and he was the sun.

Then, what felt like spots in her vision faded, and the full force of what had just happened hit her like a wrecking ball, deadly and accurate. _Holy shit…_ she thought, wretchedly, unable to form words for what had just occurred, not even in her mind.

_Holy shit, _Jacob and Seth echoed, in unison.

_You know,_ Leah thought, detachedly, _I've never understood why people say 'holy shit,' anyway. I mean, it's _feces._ What's so freaking holy about feces?_

_All it's good for is polluting the environment or whatever and fertilizer, and there's nothing really holy about _that, Seth put in helpfully. _But you just said it yourself, Leah, and… holy shit, you just _imprinted_!!_

_I noticed, _Leah said faintly.

Her eyes never once left the vampire's the whole time. He looked… shocked? Surprised? Faintly startled? She couldn't tell; his expression was nearly inscrutable.

A quick, sharp intake of breath—a hiss, really—had come from somewhere in the mind-rapist's—and the Nazi leeches', too—general direction as well, which Leah found ironic, because vampires didn't need (oxygen) to breathe. But he'd just… he'd also…

_Holy shit. Holy _shit_, _Leah repeated, and then she fled the clearing.

Silence ensued, even after her pounding paws had faded into the distance. Then, suddenly, another one of the Volturi guard—a female—flipped her hood back as well. She had long, slightly curling auburn hair, a heart-shaped face, and a tall, slim figure. Chelsea.

"Well," she said, and her voice was laced with hidden meanings, "that was interesting."

"Very interesting," another one of the Volturi guard agreed; one of who'd already had his hood brushed back by the wind. He was tall, and not as heavily built as Felix, though their hair and skin were the same color. His hair waved to his shoulders, though.

Felix seemed to have "recovered" from his encounter with Leah. "Very, _very_ interesting," he concluded grandly, aiming a wink at Bella—or maybe it was Renesmee. "We just may have to stick around for a bit longer, to find out what happens next." As if the whole situation was just another episode of a TV drama or something.

Seth looked delighted.

* * *

_Sorry if Leah's reaction to imprinting was too similar to her reaction to imprinting in NSTAHEA (No Such Thing As Happily Ever After… the Leah/Nahuel story). I tried to make it different… ish… even while the situations were similar, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded at that. xP  
_

_The last line was going to be "Bella looked horrified." I changed it. Oh well. And sorry if anyone was OOC; I tried my best~  
_

_This chapter was a bit short, probably because I omitted some stuff, but whatever. I don't need that. I seriously can't wait to write the next chapter. Hint as to why: this story's not just going to be all in Leah's point of view. Bwahaha._

_Please review. :) Ugly please, with live, wriggling worms on top. ('Cause I'm trying to be original here, people.)_


	3. tre

_Apparently, "Corin" is a girls' name. (Which I guess I should've known; I've known girls named Korin before. With a K. ~obviously. -pokes the 'K'-) I always pictured Corin as a guy… and I would still totally make him/her a guy (I've met girls with guys' names before, so why not, right?), except apparently, "Corin" means "a maiden." It's one thing for the name to mean like, "brave" or "gift of God" or something; entirely another for a guy to have a not-very-girly-sounding name that means "a maiden." So… no. xD Corin is female. After I got over that (Corin being female, I mean), though, I had fun creating her character. I now present to you the fruits of my labor. And that sounded really wrong._

_Anonymous review replies~_

**_Virusss: _**_I tried. Here is the product of my attempts. xD_

**_Jen:_**_ No problem? ;D Thanks for reviewing~ x)_

**_I-Wish-For-Wings: _**_Is this "soon"? It's less than a week though, haha._

**_TeamJasper16: _**_Aw, thanks. Glad you think so. xP I didn't mean that to be funny, but glad it was though, ha. When you ask "long" story, what do you mean by "long"—like 20 chapters long? 30 chapters long? 50 chapters long? 60 chapters long? 80 chapters long? 100 chapters long? xD I have no idea how long this story will be, sorry. Probably over ten chapters, though. At least. Fifteen plus, maybe even twenty (or thirty!?) … not sure, really._

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The receptionist in the hotel's main lobby didn't quite know what to make of the new arrivals.

There were five of them—not exactly a strange number of people in a group, but the individual members of said group were more than just a little strange, especially together. Two men, looking for all the world like brothers, two females, and then a little girl. Where did the little girl fit in?

And then there was the matter of how alike they looked, despite their ranging hair colors and facial features. They were all deathly white, with purple bruises under their eyes, as if they hadn't slept in quite a while. And their eyes… the receptionist peered at them. Were they _red_? Or black?

The thin brunette smiled at her, and she realized how idiotic she was being. Of course they weren't _red_. (Or even black.) Nobody had red eyes. It was a ridiculous idea.

_Must be a trick of the light, _she decided. And the shiver that shot up her spine was just as ridiculous. _I've been watching too many horror movies with my niece lately, _she chided herself.

There was no denying the strangeness of the new arrivals, though. All in all, it wasn't exactly your average group of people.

One of the females, the other one, the tall, auburn-haired young woman, stepped up to the reception desk, flashing a pearly white smile. "Hello," she said, and her voice was honey lathered over glass. "I'd like to rent two rooms, please."

The receptionist blinked. Her mind felt slightly hazy, as if she'd just watched eight consecutive hours of TV or something. _I need more coffee; I can't be sleeping on the job_, she told herself_. _"Oh… for how long?" she asked, out loud.

"An undetermined amount of time," Auburn Hair answered, shrugging her shoulders in one graceful movement. "We're not sure how long we'll need the rooms yet, but…" her voice trailed off.

_Focus,_ the receptionist chanted to herself. "Oh, but… you'll need to make a reservation first. I'm sorry," she said. She didn't want to say it, because it would disappoint the girl standing in front of her, but she had to. She really did hate having to disappoint the girl, though; she seemed like such a nice young woman…

Auburn Hair sighed. "Corin," she rebuked, her voice going from honey lathered over glass to shards of glass dipped in honey. It was a sharp, sudden change.

The receptionist wondered who the girl was talking to, but then the thin brunette spoke.

"I'm working on it, Chelsea," she snapped.

Before the receptionist had time to even question their meanings, the brunette spoke again, this time to her. "I'm sorry if it's inconvenient, showing up here like this so late and asking for rooms without making a reservation first," she said, "but this is really very urgent. Are you sure you don't have just two rooms to spare? We have the money."

Her voice was faintly accented. The receptionist realized how impolite she was being, refusing these nice young people the rooms they wanted. "Oh… forgive me, I'm being rude," she apologized. "I'm sure we have two rooms to spare, yes." She turned to the computer in front of her and pushed at the mouse. The swirling screensaver disappeared, and she opened the window to check the hotel records.

"Thank you," the brunette said. There was a slightly predatory gleam in her burgundy eyes. Burgundy? No… that was wrong. Impossible.

The reservations were quickly made, money handed over, things checked in, all necessary formalities done, and the receptionist handed the room keys needed over to Auburn Hair. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. For example, why didn't these people have luggage with them?

"Adequate job, as usual, Corin," the little dark-haired girl droned, sweeping past. Her cloak trailed along on the ground behind her. The receptionist wondered how she hadn't noticed that they'd been wearing cloaks before (and what strange attire it was). Then she wondered what the girl meant by that comment.

"Have a good night," the female brunette called, as she swept past as well, and the receptionist found herself smiling. She was being ridiculous, again. This was none of her business. She was just doing her job, nothing more.

"Good night," she called back, and returned to the mystery novel she'd been reading under the front desk, ignoring the feeling of wrongness that was nagging at her.

Ridiculous. She was just being ridiculous.

* * *

"So, Chels, what happened?"

Chelsea turned from checking her reflection in the gilt-framed mirror of the elevator to pin Felix with a blank stare. "Don't call me that, _Lixie_," she snapped back.

He grinned, revealing sharp teeth. "Point taken," he conceded.

"Although, _Felix, _I really think that _I _ought to be the one asking you that question," Chelsea mused. "What _did_ happen?"

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "You're the one who started the signal," he returned.

So she had.

They'd been given very precise instructions. The signal, "that was interesting," however, was only to be put out if something of particular… well, _interest_ happened. How could Chelsea _not_ have given out the signal, then, after seeing what had happened between Felix and one of the shape-shifters?

There was nothing else in the world like it… well, nothing besides what she'd seen between the alpha shape-shifter and the half-breed. A strong, thick, golden bond, impossible to manipulate.

Chelsea didn't like that. Her "power," as they called it, was to loosen or tighten emotional bonds. It was why she was a prize member of the Volturi guard. She could _see_ the bonds, strands of multiple colors, in various hues, connecting people, some entwining tighter than others, some thicker than others. The bonds around the Cullen family were tighter than those of any other coven she'd seen, even the Volturi themselves, and that worried her.

Nothing had shocked her more than the bond connecting the half-breed and the alpha shape-shifter, though. When she'd first seen it, that day years ago in the clearing,—when the Volturi had decided to confront the Cullens about the supposed immortal child they'd created—she'd had to fight back a hiss. She'd seen _nothing like it _before. She'd been with the Volturi since the 17th century, and never, in all her years, had she seen such a strong, unshakable bond. She'd tried to experiment with it—and recoiled as it zapped her mind. That sort of bond was unbreakable. Untouchable, even.

Chelsea really did wonder how it had been formed in the first place.

The bond only seemed to have grown stronger, even more unshakable over the years; it was just as strong, if not stronger, this day in the open field with the Cullens and the shape-shifters. Chelsea was puzzled over it. If she tried hard enough, she could manage to weaken the bonds between even vampire mates, such as Edward Cullen and his precious Isabella. And she'd heard from Master Aro once that the two were completely infatuated with each other, or something similar to that.

So how could she not be able to manipulate a bond between one of the _shape-shifters _(they were juvenile, really), and an _infant_?

Chelsea did not like having her powers bested.

And then, of course, there was the matter of _how_ the bond had been formed. She didn't know how the bond between the alpha shape-shifter—Jane had called him Jacob—and the half-breed, Renesmee, had first appeared, but a bond _just like it_ had suddenly whirred into existence between another one of the shape-shifters, and _Felix_.

Ah, Felix. He'd joined the Volturi guard around the same time Chelsea had. While she was thoughtful, sharp, and quite often cynical, he was cocky, and overconfident to the point of arrogance sometimes. He liked to crack jokes at the most inappropriate times, and had a rather dark sense of humor, while she always made sure to tread carefully, wherever anything important was concerned. He just ran into things without much careful planning (and it was a miracle he always came out on top, anyway). Demetri was really the only one who could restrain him; the two were good "friends" (the term being used loosely).

Chelsea and Felix were almost complete opposites. No wonder they were friends (or as close as one could get to being friends within the Volturi guard) as well. Opposites attracted, didn't they?

And the few quick strands of platonic liking (not quite friendship, but close enough) she'd attached between them upon their first meeting had absolutely nothing to do with it, of course.

(She really couldn't have helped herself, though. She'd had to keep reattaching those strands over time—and then they'd eventually grown into a bond—but it was worth it. She'd seen his impressive power, his brute strength. He was a good ally.)

But despite his brashness at times, Felix was a loyal member of the Volturi guard, and would do anything the Masters asked of him. This was only proven time and time again.

So why had he formed a sudden bond with a _shape-shifter_?

Although, judging from his apparent naïveté about the subject, he hadn't even _known_ it.

Chelsea had seen many bonds formed over the years, but none of them had been so unshakable, or formed so quickly. Normally, when two sentient beings met and liked each other, a few tentative, light strands would connect them. Over time, more and more strands would follow, until they had a good, solid bond.

Chelsea was a vampire, which meant that she had enhanced vision, hearing… the whole nine yards. Yet she hadn't even _seen_ this bond of Felix's spring into existence. She'd blinked and all of a sudden, it was just _there_. Strong, solid, and unbreakable.

Chelsea didn't understand it, and she didn't like that. She liked to understand things. Not understanding things made her cranky.

No wonder she'd given out the signal. She definitely had something of interest to report back to Master Aro, now.

"Yes, Chelsea," Jane spoke up, swiveling her head to face the aforementioned woman. "Why did you put out the signal?"

"Let's wait until we get to our rooms, shall we?" Corin suggested.

"Oh, yes," Jane said, voice slightly warning, turning to glance at Corin now. "Is it possible, next time, to work faster? That woman was a bit suspicious at first."

"I'm sorry, Jane," said Corin, visibly biting down on her lips to prevent herself from saying anything else. After a pause, she added, "I'll try my best."

"That will do," Jane said, looking away again. A bored expression stole over her face once more.

Corin clenched her hands into fists behind her back… against the elevator railing, unfortunately, something she hadn't counted on. A piece of the silver metal was crushed under her stone fingers.

_"Merde,"_ Corin muttered. "There aren't any cameras in this elevator, are there?"

"Do use your common sense," Demetri said, speaking for the first time since they'd entered the hotel. "You'd hear one if there was."

If Corin was able to, she would have flushed. Chelsea felt amused. The French girl had only been seventeen when she was changed by the Volturi for her potential ability, and she never failed to show it. She wasn't wise beyond her physical years, like Jane was.

The elevator dinged as it reached its destination. Corin dropped the metal dust into a small, ashy pile, and they stepped out into a plush carpeted hallway.

"Let's converge in one room, shall we?" Jane said blandly. "Room 911." She raised a hand, and Demetri dropped one of the key cards into her small palm.

"Fitting," Chelsea noted, dryly.

"Not true," Felix corrected. "Humans—American humans, here, anyway—wouldn't have _time_ to call 911. They'd already be dead."

"True." Chelsea smirked.

Jane inserted the card into the lock, and with a push, the door swung open. They filed in silently, and Demetri closed the door behind them.

They got right down to business.

Jane spoke first. She was physically the youngest of the quintet, but she held the most power, the most favor with the Masters (or at least Master Aro). "What did you see, Chelsea?"

Chelsea had never told anyone about the specifics of her power, and Master Aro was the only one who really knew everything about it. "A bond," she said, shortly, "was formed between Felix and that female shape-shifter."

"I thought I felt something," Felix mused. "That was rather strange, actually."

Chelsea ignored him. "A strong, unbreakable bond. Formed immediately. I didn't even see it happen; it was just there, all of a sudden. The alpha shape-shifter has the exact same kind of bond with the half-breed."

Corin swore under her breath in French again.

"Interesting development," Jane remarked, and even her bored facade was gone for a moment. "It ties in to what I was planning to ask Felix. It looks like that won't be necessary anymore."

"Both these bonds," Demetri ventured, "these unbreakable bonds… shape-shifters are connected in both. Is it possible for this to be a shape-shifter thing?"

Jane frowned, and for half a second, Chelsea saw the petulant child beneath her eerie adultness. Then the moment was gone, and Jane was the apathetic, most powerful one again. "I believe I heard Master Aro say something of this, from what he gathered from Edward Cullen's mind, though I can't be positive. A shape-shifter connection."

"Do the shape-shifters connect to more than one person?" Corin asked. "What kind of connection is it?"

All eyes swung to Chelsea again.

"Thick, golden. Unbreakable. I told you already," she said.

"No… I mean, is it a bond of friendship? Love? Hate? What?"

Chelsea realized that she didn't know, and she disliked that just as much as she'd disliked Gianna… when the girl had been alive, anyway. "It was just… a bond," she finally said, rather lamely, in her opinion. "It had the potential to become anything, really, but… it would be impossible to break it."

"Master Aro will find this very interesting," Jane intoned. "Felix, you may give him the news." He grinned delightedly, like a cat that had just caught a mouse. "Demetri… see if you can't find where the shape-shifter female is right now. You did catch her scent already."

"Yes," Demetri said.

"And we?" Chelsea asked, speaking for both herself and Corin.

Jane turned her burgundy gaze to the other females of the group. "You may go hunting. Your eyes are looking rather dark. We wouldn't want an… accident. Do stay out of Forks, though. The Cullens wouldn't like it if you hunted in their territory, and we must stay on good terms with them."

Chelsea thought that last statement of Jane's was rather ironic, but she needed no further invitation. The back of her throat _was_ itching a bit. "Do you have the IDs?" she asked Corin instead, who nodded.

"Let's go, then."

"Let's not find someone intoxicated this time, though," Corin warned. "The alcohol affects the taste of their blood. It's rather disgusting."

"No drugs, either."

"Oh, but there are many humans at clubs who stay sober."

The two females went over to the window in the hotel room and opened it, slipping out into the night.

* * *

_I hope everybody was in character… if not, just point it out, and I'll try my best to fix it. I will love you if you review. If you hated it, feel free to flame. (I love saying that. Feel free to flame. Alliteration, whoo~)_

_So, what do you think of Chelsea? Corin? I_'_d like to know._

_(By the way, apparently Corin is a French name, so I made her French. Merde means shit. Ha. Yeah.)  
_


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